Bike The Lake Day 3 - Cobourg To Picton

Our shortest day of the trip started with cool temperatures (15 C) and a forecast for sun all day.   Turned out we didn't really see the sun at all but the cooler over cast day was fine with us.

The route today mainly followed  the Waterfront Trail, which was mostly on highway 33, also known as the Loyalists Highway.   The roads we okay,  a bit bumpy and also pretty busy. Almost always had a bike Lane so it wasn't so bad.  

The distance today wasn't really long but both us were starting to feel the affects of the miles.   My legs we a bit more tired today and my butt didn't like it much either!  Really it wasn't too bad though with mostly flat roads and almost no wind to deal with.

We had a short morning, made slightly longer by a 15 minute wait at a railway crossing, but got to Brighton around 11:30 for lunch.   Found a nice place on the water, a little by accident, called Douglass On The Bay. 

Right after lunch I noticed the headset on my bike was pretty loose and needed some fixing. Luckily I had the skinny wrench needed for the lock nut but no other wrench big enough to tighten the jam nut.   Google told me there was a hardware store back a few km's into downtown Brighton so off we went.  Had to buy a $14 adjustable wrench,  but it did the trick.

Other than that my bike has been working great. Kochi's bike has been pretty good too but is making some funny creaking noises. Not sure what it is, but don't seem to be causing any real trouble.  

The afternoon ride went smooth with lots of Lake views and nice houses to look at.  We made it to Picton in good time and even found another LCBO to get a few beers at!

Tonight we're at the Picton Harbour Inn,  which has a great harbour front view but the rooms are a bit old and dated.   It does the job though.

Today was physically harder then we were  both expecting so hopefully tomorrow goes a bit better.

All said, it was around 105 km on the road today.

Bike The Lake - Day 2. Richmond Hill to Cobourg

Day 2 of our cycling trip started with rain and wet roads.   Forecast for the day was 15+ mm of rain so we were expecting to get wet.   It was already really humid at 9 am.

The morning routed seemed to be full of construction and detours. The bridge was under construction on Whitevale Rd but we managed to get around a few barriers and made our way across.

Heading south towards Pickering the skies turned really dark and we were sure we were going to get wet.   Somehow though we managed to avoid the rain all day and by 2 pm the sun actually started to come out!

By Whitby we found the Waterfront Trail and saw lake Ontario for the first time! We followed the trail pretty much all the way to Cobourg.

The Trail was nice,  very quiet and lots of amazing views of the lake and some really nice houses. We stopped in Port Hope for a little break before heading to Cobourg. It was really nice to get out of the greater Toronto area and away from all the traffic.

As soon as we hit Cobourg we saw an LCBO,  so we had so stop for a couple of cold tall boys!

Found our hotel without too much trouble and all said and done we rode about 130 km in about six hours. 

Has a nice dinner in downtown Cobourg  and then enjoyed a bit of sun at the beach.   It really did turn into a beautiful day!

So far everything has gone smoothly,  bikes are working well and my legs have been feeling good.  Tomorrow is a "shorter" 100 km day,  which we're looking forward too!

I have to mention my Garmin Edge 510 gps bike computer had been awesome. I made up all my routes on Starva and then loaded them into my Garmin. The Garmin doesn't show full map info like a car gps but it tells me every corner I need to turn at,  which is very cool and really helpful! No need to look at paper  maps or my cell phone.

Bike The Lake (BTL) Day 1 - Waterloo To Richmond Hill

First day of my first ever cycling trip is finally here! My friend Kochi and I are biking around lake Ontario over the next 8 days.

Took a fair bit of time figuring out what to pack but managed to get everything in my pannier bags. Weight of both bags together was about 24 lbs which isn't too bad.

This morning at about 9 am we headed out. It was nice and sunny and warm.

Morning ride went great, nice easy rolling with a slight tail wind. Stopped in Georgetown for lunch.

After lunch it was getting really warm, but not bad while riding. Went through a nice little town called Klienburg, where a couple of weddings were going on. After Klienburg the roads seemed to get really hilly and the legs started to feel it.

The last little bit into Richmond Hill was pretty busy with lots of traffic, not so fun.

We found our luxury hotel.. Travel lodge... after about 139 km and a little over 6 hours on the bike. Was a pretty relaxed paced today which was probably a good way to start!

Great day all around!

Loaded Touring Test Ride

After a little bike maintenance over the weekend ... new bottom bracket and rear tire ... it was time for my buddy and I to take a little test ride with all our gear.

We're planning to ride around Lake Ontario in July so we loaded up the panniers and tested out the gear and legs today.

Bike Weight (w/ bottles, lights, no panniers) = 29 lbs.
Panniers (mostly full) = 16 lbs.

Had a good ride, about 3 hrs and 80+ km.
Was hot and windy but the gear worked great!

Strava Results

Less than two weeks until we leave!

Touring Practice Ride - 6/21/14

Went out for a solo touring ride Saturday morning to test my legs and some gear.

Beautiful day, with 4+ hours on the bike!

Strava Results

New Rack and Panniers Installed

First blog post ever ... can you tell!

Planning a week long bike tour in July so I needed some gear from my old road bike.

Got both the Rack and Panniers from MEC, so far everything works well.


Had some fun mounting the rack due to the huge frame size of the bike (its on a bit of an angle), but the panniers mount fine.

Filzer PR-8 Rack From MEC.

PF-2 43L Pannier from MEC

Now time for some test riding!